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4.58 AVERAGE
4.58 AVERAGE
The Paper Menagerie is devastating. I couldn't stop them tears.
I've seen this on shelves at several bookstores and have always wanted to read it solely for the beautiful cover. I got a chance today to listen to it instead . LeVar Burton reads this in 50-odd minutes on his podcast "LeVar Burton Reads"
https://bit.ly/3OiliWY.
Ken Liu is a genius. This one short story explores multiple themes including childlike wonder and imagination, identity and the diasporic experience, racism, parental love, death and magic. This story is an example of how powerful this word-limited medium of a short story can be.
Keeping all that aside, the story is devastating. I couldn't stop the tears streaming down my face.
Read it, or listen to it. And be prepared to cry your heart out.
I've seen this on shelves at several bookstores and have always wanted to read it solely for the beautiful cover. I got a chance today to listen to it instead . LeVar Burton reads this in 50-odd minutes on his podcast "LeVar Burton Reads"
https://bit.ly/3OiliWY.
Ken Liu is a genius. This one short story explores multiple themes including childlike wonder and imagination, identity and the diasporic experience, racism, parental love, death and magic. This story is an example of how powerful this word-limited medium of a short story can be.
Keeping all that aside, the story is devastating. I couldn't stop the tears streaming down my face.
Read it, or listen to it. And be prepared to cry your heart out.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really liked this short story. It was incredibly sad and sweet.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent
i wanted to cry. and i did.
"If I say 'love,' I feel here." She pointed to her lips. "If I say 'ai,' I feel here." She put a hand over her heart.
"If I say 'love,' I feel here." She pointed to her lips. "If I say 'ai,' I feel here." She put a hand over her heart.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
Should you escape your own identity, and try to change it for others, to be accepted as part of society.
Society is by you, not change you. No one should be entitled to change you and your goals, and least of all, is a society, socially motivated pricks that hang around in batches to feel safe, to avoid themselves of reality, that fakes around others to feel important between other batches of pricks.
Society is by you, not change you. No one should be entitled to change you and your goals, and least of all, is a society, socially motivated pricks that hang around in batches to feel safe, to avoid themselves of reality, that fakes around others to feel important between other batches of pricks.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of tradition, magic, mysticism and grief. Jack is the son of a Chinese mother and an American father, who met through a mail-order brochure and hardly shared a language for much of their marriage. Growing up in suburban Connecticut, Jack was thrilled with his mom’s magical origami animals until suddenly he wasn’t. Embarrassed by his mother’s appearance, accent, and existence, Jack urged her to speak to him only in English and slowly stopped speaking to his mother entirely and shoving his paper menagerie into a box in the attic.
The story was engrossing and relatively quick-moving with characters who devastated me. The imagery was phenomenal, and the reflections were so meaningful, though the letter at the end felt the tiniest bit overdone.
The story was engrossing and relatively quick-moving with characters who devastated me. The imagery was phenomenal, and the reflections were so meaningful, though the letter at the end felt the tiniest bit overdone.